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Diary 2006
Riihimäki, Finland, Saturday 23.12.2006, 16:18
After a two-day visit to southern Finland I started a trip back home to Oulu 30 minutes ago. Since it is almost Christmas Eve, the train is packed. People are on their way to meet the relatives, to visit the summer cottage etc. As for me, my purpose for the stay in the Helsinki region was a funeral. A dad of my brother's good childhood friend passed away all of a sudden, and since I was a tenant in their home for two years outside term time (I was still in the university), I got to know the family as well.The funeral service was an emotional one. It became obvious that the deceased had a large number of loving friends and family. He had eight siblings so it was no wonder there were around a hunder people attending the service. Although I am not much of a fun of churches, I must say the Kellonummi chapel in Espoo was an attractive one. A simple, but beautiful building. Surroundings were of my type as well: plenty of nature, no crowds or population nearby. The commemoration was a touching one as well. It was heartwarming to experience the closeness of a large family. They lived apart in Finland and abroad, still they managed to keep in touch with each other and meet on regular basis outside occasions like funerals. The speeches were humorous, the food was tasty and the company entertaining. The deceased was also remembered by a significant amount of people outside his family. He had had a wide network of colleagues and friends. His family is facing some challenging times. Despite of the sorrow, their family business issues need to be taken care of - especially in the busy Christmas period which is financially important, if not crucial, to a number of companies. I wish you strength and endurance. The horizon might seem dark for a long time henceforth, but it is fact of life that it is only a matter of time before the sun rises again, in a way or another.
Below is a photo from the funeral service.
Oulu, Finland, Sunday 17.12.2006, 14:17
Today I received feedback about my page suggesting that I should post larger photos on my web page. First of all, thank you for the feedback my anonymous visitor, secondly, I will not post larger photos and this will be the case most likely for the foreseeable future. Why? Because the space I have for my web pages is limited, the PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) camera I am using for the photos is a low resolution one, and on top of a computer, I update these pages also via the abovementioned PDA. As we know, high quality graphics can devour enormous amounts of memory and one can imagine the amount of money it costs to transfer such data wirelessly like with my PDA. Hence low resolution photos. Hope this clarified the situation.Another thing the anonymous visitor mentioned was that "ur child is very cute!". Thank you for that, I agree :) This reminded me of our daughter's unofficial medical record, the "baby card" that is updated on her normal monthly checks to a doctor. Amidst the medical language, measurements and other so-to-speak scientific stuff you find occasional "what a cute little baby!" type of comments. Me and my spouse had a good laugh when we noticed this for the first time :)
Finally few words about Tommy Tabermann, a Finnish man, a poet and a regular face in the Finnish version of "Have I got news for you", who dares to talk in public about one thing that Finnish men have dreaded for... well, always: love and emotions. He is strong by being soft. He does the things in public that some of the men would like to do but are too afraid because of the role stereotypes and social pressure. Tommy advances the things that everyone needs and most likely wants, and like all pioneers, I am sure he has to endure some crap as well because of his resolve. Well, like Mahatma Gandhi said, "first they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win". For you Finnish speakers out there, check out Tommy's web page from the link above.
Guess what is in today's photo. Yes, correct: it is the first batch of home-made soap in its one-month drying process! My spouse wanted to try out making soap at home and here is the result.
Oulu, Finland, Monday 04.12.2006, 18:46
I am confused about the security policy of Finland. The Secretary of Defence is warning about the collapse of the Finnish defence capability due to continuous budget cuts. The CEO of Pohjolan Voima, a Finnish energy company, warned the public today in the inauguration of the first power cable combining the Nordic electricity grids with the Baltic ones about the shortage in Finnish power production. Apparently the theoretical domestic maximum production can cover only up to around 90% of the daily energy need in the winter. Also the new Olkiluoto 3 nuclear reactor is delayed yet again. Moreover, the Finnish cargo vessels are in the process of being sold to a foreign company, among with other national property. For some NATO is still an open matter as no thorough report has apparently been compiled about the effects of Finland's membership, for some it is a taboo altogether. All this makes you wonder whether the current administration is counting more on good luck in today's world than on anything else since it is hard to avoid the feeling that this country is more vulnerable to unforeseen problems than before. And for what? Hopefully not just for the brainless need for continuous financial growth that seems to justify pretty much anything in today's world, regardless of the cost. Financial growth is important, but only if it serves some higher humane purpose and societal change. Target for mere growth and consumption is short-sighted and ultimately paid by our children and their children.Another interesting piece of news today was the enrolment of Sauli Niinistö to the forthcoming parliamentary election. The current leader of the Finnish right-wing party Kokoomus wasted no time in announcing that Niinistö is not the party's candidate for the post of prime minister, but - backed up by the decision made by the party's general assembly when the candidacy of Niinistö was not known - he is. Hmm... this raises a question about the extent of the hunger for power of this young party leader: which is more important, to find the best man within the party to be the prime minister candidate or to stick to a decision that was made with insufficient information?
On we move to a more light-hearted issue: here is a fresh photo of our cutie taking a nap with a "silencer" :)
Oulu, Finland, Sunday 03.12.2006, 09:26
We are in the process of changing our Internet Service Provider (ISP) and again - alas - the Finnish customer service gets another scar to its already barred face. The estimated time for installation came and went and nothing happened. The company was meant to contact me beforehand to agree on a more detailed installation time, but I never received such communication. Moreover, based on the aforementioned estimated installation time, we terminated our previous connection well in advance to avoid double costs. It is clear now that this was a mistake as we are now without any kind of Internet connection. I am writing this from my 2.5G mobile which is surely handy for certain things, but running all the Internet related errands via a mobile phone is still far from practical. A full-size portable keyboard would do the trick though...It is time for Christmas parties again. On Thursday I participated the first one and the food was excellent! It was plain clear someone had put in a lot of work for catering. Thank you chef! Yesterday I participated another two Christmas parties: first one at my boss's place and the second one in a local bar that was booked for a private party. The latter one included a game in which certain people had to make three claims of themselves out of which one was erroneous i.e. a lie and the rest of the folks had to identify the false claim with the help of questions that could be answered only by saying yes or no. Contrary to what I imagined (heh heh...:), my case turned out to an easy one: no one really bought the claim saying that I have experienced a parachuting accident resulting to a partially amputated spleen and a crushed little toe.
Here is a photo from a Christmas party that took place on Thursday:
Oulu, Finland, Sunday 19.11.2006, 18:23
First of all I have to apologise again for not updating this page for some time. I have received feedback about it for more than few times now, so I try to be more punctual henceforth.Today me, my spouse and our daughter attended the weekly CHAFF meeting (check the links page for more about CHAFF) at Pailin restaurant in Oulu. It has been a long time since the last time we attended. As always, the food was good and the company invigorating. I talked with a man who is working at the Oulu university as a lecturer, but he has also a part-time tenure at the university of Newcastle in UK. As if that was not already enough, he is also married and has two young kids. His wife is also studying full-time in the medical school in Newcastle. One can imagine that is more than a handful to tackle, but they enjoy their challenging lives.
One other person I talked with was an American man lecturing at the Oulu university for this semester, thanks to a Fulbright scholarship. There was one phrase in particular that caught my ears:"...in the fifties pollution was considered as a sign of prosperity in the society in USA". If it had not been for the National Geographic article about chemicals in the modern society (issue 13/2006, Finnish edition, pages 14-37) that I had read just before departing to the CHAFF meeting, I would probably not have paid such attention to it. The article gave a fairly grim image of the situation the modern people live in. Chemicals and generations come and go, but nothing changes: a new chemical is discovered, publicised widely, manufactured and used all over the world - and only then someone comes along and asks: "Err... is this safe? Has anyone made sure the benefits of this chemical outweigh its disadvantages? Actually, what are its disadvantages?". Well, do not expect an answer from the chemical industry apparently. They seem to be more interested in reaping the financial benefits than to make sure their products are safe for the environment. Considering the lessons learned (e.g. with DDT, PCB etc.) and the fact that the history tends to repeat itself, It is simply astounding that a Europe-wide agency for chemicals has not existed already for decades. Well, better late than never.
Here is a photo from today's CHAFF meeting:
Oulu, Finland, Tuesday 14.11.2006, 19:39
My my, does time fly or what? I realised it has been a while since the last time I wrote, but... it still amazed me to notice that it has been almost a month and a half since the last update. One of my best friends who lives far away from Oulu gave me two messages saying that "what's wrong dude? How come there's no news?". Thank you compadre, you woke me up.What comes to the excus... reasons why I have not written, they are numerous. My service provider's server settings changed and the update did not work instantly, work has taken more time than before and most importantly my two-month daughter has been dominating my attention while at home. Me and my spouse have been lucky so far, no doubt about that. Our angel sleeps well, eats well, is calm etc. Even though the first child tends to turn one's routines upside down, this has not been the case with us. Then again, my spouse - as often is the case, admittedly - has done most of the work and I am truly grateful for her effort. During the week she is the one waking up in the night should our angel ask for it and I take part to these routines in the weekend. To tell you the truth though, I sleep so tight that either I do not wake up at all when our baby is crying or then my spouse is already up by the time I am brought back to this world from the never-never-land. Must be the motherly instincts or something...
Here is our sunshine two minutes ago:
Oulu, Finland, Sunday 03.09.2006, 21:26
On 2nd of September 2006 at 16:17 my spouse gave birth to our new family member: our daughter! Figures are 4550 g and 54 cm. The whole delivery was a fairly short process. We arrived to the hospital at 10:00 and in around six hours we were holding her in our arms for the first time :) Both daughter and mother are in good health. They are currently recovering from the delivery at the Oulu University Hospital but they will be coming home in few days.
Oulu, Finland, Sunday 13.08.2006, 18:37
Yesterday morning I got a concrete reminder of how easy it is to fool a person (or perhaps I am just an exception...?:). I got a call from my boss asking me to come to work because there were some problems. As it was around 10:00 in a Saturday morning and I was reading the morning paper on the couch enjoying the day off, I was not that happy about the idea of spending the rest of it at work. "No can do" I figured, got off the sofa and started to make my way to work. Once I arrived, my boss called me and asked me to meet him at a certain location in the building. Once I got there, he let me in and said that "the rest of the boys are here already" while motioning me towards the table and chairs separated from the rest of the space by walls. I was already concentrated on the imagined situation at hand and hence did not react in any way once I saw the first person behind the wall: one of my best friends (not a colleague!). Then I noticed another one of my good friends and they were both holding cameras pointed towards me. I was being ambushed for a bachelor party! Once I recovered from the shock we were off to a day full of events, but I will not disclose the details :)Below you see a photo of my friends behind the whole plot. They are all from the capital region so they made a 600 km trip for this occasion and I am deeply moved and grateful for their effort. Even though the agenda of the day was memorable already because of the activities only, the best part was to spend time with my childhood friends as this is a luxury I get to enjoy way too rarely. Thank you to my boss as well, not everyone would have sacrificed a Saturday morning for this.
Oulu, Finland, Sunday 06.08.2006, 15:32
After the first visit of the military vessels of some of the Nordic countries in Oulu in the seventies, the second one took place this year. Me, my spouse and some of our friends went to the harbor to witness the visit yesterday since the vessels were open for the public for few hours every day. For our disappointment we found the queues for the vessels to be too long for people with our patience, so instead of boarding them, we simply settled for walking next to the vessels and taking photographs. Eventually we found ourselves sitting nearby the sea enjoying the company of our friends and a small picnic.
Oulu, Finland, Saturday 29.07.2006, 21:45
Qstock, the annual rock festival in Oulu, is the second actual summer occasion I participate this summer, the first one being the garlic night of Oulu. I came to the area by myself on the second day of the festival to see Diablo, a Finnish heavy metal band (see a photo of the gig below), for the first time in my life. The area of the festival, Kuusisaari, provides an excellent isolated location for the people with only one problem; it is right next to the town center and a large number of people live nearby. Isolation means in this case water; the whole place is surrounded by water apart from the main entrance area and that helps a number of practical issues on the list of the organizers. The day was sunny and warm - as pretty much all the days this summer - and unlike in some of the other festivals, space was in abundance. Even toilets were readily available without massive queues. Diablo played... OK. Although it was great to see them live, I could not avoid getting a tiny feeling of a "been there, done that"-syndrome from the band; it was just another gig for them and the expected rage and attitude seemed to be partially missing.
Oulu, Finland, Sunday 23.07.2006, 18:17
When the week started, a 17-year-old German exchange student Judith arrived to Oulu for a two-week traineeship. She will be working in a youth project for the city of Oulu in a traffic park for children. Judith is from Leverkusen, which is a "friendship-town" of Oulu. Hence they have constant exchanges etc. going on. Excellent! Gives plenty of opportunities for young adults to obtain international experience. This is also the first time for me and my spouse when we are hosting a long-term guest. Hopefully this will not be the last time. These kind of visits tend to me mutually beneficial. Below you see a photo of Judith sitting on our couch 7 minutes ago.
Seinäjoki, Finland, Wednesday 28.06.2006, 11:52
I am sitting in a train on my way back to home, Oulu. Even though I have travelled this same route a number of times, I still find myself deep in my thoughts time to time admiring the green nature we have in this country in the summertime. I spent virtually the whole of yesterday visiting my relatives in the southern Finland. Me and my spouse arrived in the morning to cloudy Helsinki from a boat cruise and proceeded to a jewellery shop to see whether we could find a suitable ring for her as a sign of our forthcoming wedlock. After a successful visit we enjoyed a cup of coffee in a cafe in the city centre watching the demolition of the old storage houses of the Finnish National Railways which were maliciously burned down a couple of weeks ago. Then it was time for my spouse to move to the airport as she was due to fly back to Oulu. I drove to visit my grandparents that I had not seen in the past six months. The visit was a short but an enjoyable one, time had taken its toll. Since I still had time before my agreed meeting with two friends of mine, I drove to see some other relatives. Despite of the short notice, I was welcomed and we exchanged news. As we discussed, I was reminded again of the fact how fast time goes by. Eventually I met my friends and the lovely German shepherd (see the photo below). The last time I saw her she was still as much a puppy as a teenager.
Stockholm, Sweden, Monday 26.06.2006, 17:30
Me and my spouse are sitting in a lounge of a cruise boat called Silja Serenade sipping coffee and enjoying the view. We just left Stockholm and are now on our way back to Helsinki, our starting point and the final destination. The day in Stockholm was pleasant; it was sunny and warm, my spouse had a chance to go shopping and we had a tasty Japanese sushi dish as lunch. We have basically spent the time sleeping and eating well. Midnight summer party at the summer cottage was somewhat exceptional this year; for the first time ever the weather prevented us from building the bonfire. Nevertheless, it was nice to get together with some family members again.
Oulu, Finland, Thursday 22.06.2006, 22:15
Tomorrow is the eve of the Midnight Summer party. Traditionally I have spent it at the summer cottage with the family and this year is no exception. We spend the day building a bonfire on a large rock that is - depending on the water lever - usually just barely above the sea level. This is a safety precaution as burning a bonfire of the same magnitude on solid ground would be too dangerous. It could ignite the surrounding forest. Once all the scrap-wood that has drifted to the shore during the year etc. has been piled in an organized manner on top of the wooden structure standing around a foot on top of the stone supported by wooden poles stuck in the seabed, we leave it until we have all eaten dinner, had sauna and relaxed. Weather permitting, we carry eventually few chairs on the shore, make ourselves comfortable and watch the flames of the bonfire amidst socializing, refreshments, the view of the of sea (with some other possible bonfires on the coastal line opposite us) and the weather of the nightless night. Finally the bonfire will collapse to the sea and we move back indoors. By this time it is already the early hours of the following day.My spouse is currently in a short work-related trip and we will see each other again tomorrow while we are on the way to the cottage. Ah, I have missed the place, visit once a year is not enough. Then again, geographical facts are facts, the distance is too long for frequent trips.
Oulu, Finland, Sunday 18.06.2006, 16:36
My summer vacation started by having a cup of coffee and a tasty piece of cloudberry cake at the center of Oulu right after work on Friday. The price tag of that relaxing moment was quite high though since it is not that cheap in this country to eat out if you want to avoid the fast-food outlets. Shame really, services will most likely be an important part of tomorrow's Finland so one would think it would be for the best interest of everyone - in many respects - to enable services businesses to lower their prices a bit.I do not have a car so I use public transportation on regular basis and I have been wondering about the reasons how to make public transportation more attractive to masses. Perhaps the best thing about having a car is the fact that you are not dependent on anyone else's schedules whereas in public transportation this is a permanent nuisance; if you do not go on the stop early enough, you just might miss the buss etc. In other words, the certainty that you do get the public transportation within a reasonable time frame you were aiming at is too small for too many people. I personally do not like that fact that a) I usually need to be early on the stop in order to guarantee that I actually do catch the intended service and b) I need to be more or less alert all the time on the stop in order to catch the right service instead of spending the time on something useful and productive. If there was a way for a common citizen to avoid the two things mentioned above, I think public transportation would start to gain popularity. All you mobile application developers out there, take note.
Oulu, Finland, Monday 12.06.2006, 18:56
We had a summer party at work last Friday. When I went home some of my colleagues were still off to explore the nightlife of Oulu. We had good time and it was fun to recap the events again today next to a cup of coffee :)Yesterday I was selling LP records at the marketplace of Oulu. The Oulu branch of the Finland's national public service broadcasting company Yleisradio donated its LP archives to charity and the Oulu branch of UNICEF Finland took action by selling it. It was interesting to browse through the record collection as it brought back a lot of memories. It feels somewhat odd to think that while I was a child LPs were still the thing and CDs were nothing but a fancy new technology in the horizon :) Nevertheless, it was like a quick recollection of the history of the Finnish music of the past decades. To my surprise I also noticed that although we live in a country with two official languages, Finnish and Swedish, I found virtually no Swedish records at all. Instead, German records were plenty.
The sale attracted a lot of people and some of them visited the stall more than once or twice. Although there was a cold breeze from the sea, the day was sunny and (almost...) warm. Typical to a person with my pale Nordic skin, I managed to slightly burn my nose in the sun. This, of course, caused some witty comments at work... :)
Oulu, Finland, Sunday 04.06.2006, 14:32
Phew... it is a surprising amount of wor... hassle that one has to go through because of wedding arrangements. Me and my spouse have spent most of today making invitations etc. and even in this age of information technology it still takes a lot of time. Some small settings issues and such create most of the hassle. In some occasions it could have been worthwhile to do it by hand instead...Soon I am off to a construction site of a friend of mine. There is a pile of trunks waiting to be chopped. This will be good training for the Midnight Summer party because my dad has recruited me to give him a hand in chopping a big spruce at the summer cottage that fell on the ground during a storm. Fortunately nothing was damaged.
Oulu, Finland, Saturday 03.06.2006, 16:02
My my, it has been too long time since the last time I wrote. Gotta pinch myself and get a grip :)Yesterday evening was something out of ordinary. I came home from work and noticed that there was a hammer on the entrance desk. "What is this doing here...", I was wondering. Then I make my way to the living room and notice that there is a broken toilet cupboard mirror/door on the table followed by an open pack of adhesive bandages and scissors in the kitchen. Finally I note that my spouse's mobile phone is on another table. An obvious question was "has there been an accident, has she hurt herself and most of all, where is she?". After making two phone calls to our mutual friends I managed to locate her and everything turned out to be fine. Apparently she had simply forgotten her phone when she left for work, she cut her finger while opening a parcel and the mirror/door had fallen by itself all of a sudden. So all of these occurrences took place within a small time frame and had no links with each other whatsoever, but for an outsider like me the consequent environment suggested that something bad had happened. My spouse had no idea how the house might look from an outsider's point of view, and once we noticed that everything was alright we had a good laugh.
Oulu, Finland, Sunday 14.05.2006, 11:17
Yesterday was the opening of the barbecue season. My spouse has a group of friends whose spouses (like me, among the others) have never met so they decided to organize a barbecue to fix this. We combined the tables and managed to fit everyone next to the same table. Unfortunately the weather was not ideal, it was raining most of the time. Thanks to the cover the roof provided against the rain and some flammable liquid aid we got the barbecue going. One of the guests brought a huge chunk of salmon and we smoked it. All in all the food was delicious.
Oulu, Finland, Saturday 06.05.2006, 11:47
Today I read a letter to the editor written by a forthcoming university student telling how daunting it is to think that students might have to pay for their studies in the future. Letters and opinions like this have been published by numerous people and newspapers already. What is daunting to me is that there are bright young minds out there in this country who take free money more or less for granted. Yes, free money for them, but not for the tax payers, and often these two groups are not the same. Future students should remember that the Finnish financial aid system for students can be considered privileged and exceptional in the global scale. If the students have to take a loan for their studies, hey, welcome to the reality of the majority of the students in the world. Sorry that you had to step down from your ivory towers. Given the free financial aid to students plus some of the longest study times in the world, it seems to me it is nothing but a rational move to move to tuition fees in Finland. Who knows, perhaps the students will pay more attention to the utilization of money they have to pay back with interest than to these lunches they assume to be free. Besides, whenever you get something for free, whatever it is, be nothing but grateful for it. Whatever you do, do not put on a sour face and say "I want more".What an awesome weather outside! Today became the first day of the year for me to dine outdoors. We placed our garden furniture outside and I had my breakfast while reading Kaleva. It was a happy surprise to notice that one of my friends had written the day's Alakerta column on the second page.
Oulu, Finland, Tuesday 02.05.2006, 20:05
Today was a tiresome day. I felt inactive and eventually I found out why. I was falling ill. Now I have fever so the rest of the lawn needs to be cleared from leaves some other day. Same goes for the painting of the garden furniture, around one third of the work is done. Well, no can do. Gotta get better and back on track again :)Oulu, Finland, Monday 01.05.2006, 13:09
The Labour Day, or Vappu in Finnish, eve was spent at home and with a family in the neighborhood. The first barbecue of this year became reality although the weather was still chilly enough to keep us dining indoors. We had plenty of sima (a Finnish Labour Day drink, consists of water, sugar, yeast, lemon and raisins) and good food. The three young boys of our hosts were enjoying the sunny weather perhaps more than anyone else.Although the oldest of the sons is only five years old, he has already demonstrated shrewd sense of business and initiative. The family had a small stone garden on their front yard but the parents wanted to change it. What a better way to teach the son the value of the money than to give him an offer he cannot refuse (because otherwise there is no way he can acquire more new essential Pokemon cards :); "If you carry the stones of the garden at the backyard, we will give you five euros". He accepted the offer happily. "That should keep him occupied for few days", the mom thought. But what did this little businessman do? He recruited some kids from the neighborhood to do the work for him for free! Within no time he went to the parents asking for the salary, and he got it :) But the best is yet to come; all this happened last year. In the past few days the mom went to the front yard and to her surprise the rocks were back again! After wondering what is going on, the happy little businessman of the family extended his arm and said: "If you give me five euros, I will move them back". Hahahahaaa!!!
Below you see a photo of Lumi, the polar bear of our family (Lumi means snow in Finnish). Because of a hiding game, Lumi was missing for six weeks after the last time the boys visited us. Finally he found his way back :)
Oulu, Finland, Sunday 30.04.2006, 12:05
It has been an active week. For couple of days after work I have attended a woodwork course for few hours and I have enjoyed it thoroughly. The last time I worked with these machines must have been in the comprehensive school so it has been a while. It is great such opportunities exist and are available to all the citizens. Some other engagements reserved the rest of my evenings this week. Fair trade issues at the worldshop Juuttiputiikki and one of the best investments an individual can make, sports, were the main activities. This week is the Fair Trade week in Finland by the way.On 26th of March (see below) I wrote about a letter I received from KELA, the Social Insurance Institution of Finland. They required me to return some of the student support money from my final year of studies because I had apparently earned too much money that same year. I replied to them by submitting the required salary documents accompanied with a letter of reasoning why I disagree with the decision. Two days ago I received a reply; I still have to pay, but the sum is around 15% less than before. I still cannot believe it; I am basically being punished now for getting myself an employer for my final year project (Master's thesis in Finland) and for being employed after graduation! In retrospect, a better option from the KELA's point of view would have probably been to do neither and be unemployed. Where is the common sense here? My income never surpassed the maximum limit set by KELA for earnings during studies.
Another worrying thing was a column I read in Talouselämä (issue 16, 28.4.2006, page 39) about a real-life story of an entrepreneur in Finland. Johannes Koroma wrote how he decided to terminate his business three years after its launch since - one can only wonder why - the society takes 75% of its earnings. Yep, you read correctly, 75%. Now, entrepreneurship is something this country needs, but for some reason this does not seem of high priority in reality in this society. The contrast between the words and the actions of the politicians in this issue is significant. I, for one, cannot think of a single person in my network of friends etc. who would be willing to establish a business even if they had a possibly successful business idea and you cannot really blame them. It goes without saying that fundamental changes like taxation issues take a long time to materialize, but the idea of improving the status of an entrepreneur has existed long enough. Yet the situation does not seem to have improved that much. Again, one can only wonder why. To make it even more incomprehensible, this man has had an impressive career in the Finnish society (read the book "Kokemus puhuu" for some details, ISBN: 951-0-31261-4), and as he would still like to work after his official retirement and thus utilize his experiences to create tax revenue, the society responds in this way. Wasted resources, I say. Provided he is still willing to work, I am convinced he has a lot to give to the younger generations, if only it would be worthwhile to set up a business of some kind to do so.
Below you see a photo of our yard after the snow has melted. The exotic looking spruce in the middle of the yard is a true survivor; it was stuck under the snow for most of the winter, yet directly after the snow melted it jumped right up as if nothing had happened :)
Hämeenlinna, Finland, Sunday 22.04.2006, 16:47
I am sitting in the audience in Hämeenlinna (below is a photo of this place) watching a photo presentation of a 3-month trip to India by three representatives of two different worldshops of Finland. The purpose of the trip of these Fair Trade people was to visit the producers of the products they sell in their worldshops. In case you have ever wondered where the money goes when you buy Fair Trade products, try to visit one of these presentations and you get somewhat concrete examples. I also visited the worldshop of Hämeenlinna called Kirahvi (= giraffe in Finnish). The shop had a very nice layout and a seemingly dedicated staff.
Oulu, Finland, Friday 21.04.2006, 09:03
I am sitting in a cafe and having a cup of coffee while writing this. On days when I take a bus to go work my connection is sometimes late or I miss it, and that is when I go to this cafe for some home made food. Excellent place and location. The staff seems to also cater not only for the appetites of their customers but for their mental well-being as well. Now that is rare in these days. Below you see a church in the centre of Oulu enjoying the spring sun. After the winter sun truly has an affect on people; virtually half of my friends I met yesterday started talking about the gorgeous weather we have had now for two days. Timing is good since - if I have understood correctly - a Rotary Group Study Exchange (GSE) team from India arrived to Finland yesterday. I hope they enjoy their stay.
Oulu, Finland, Monday 17.04.2006, 19:07
Easter vacation is over and it is ending with a memorable occasion; last night at midnight I felt myself for the first time how our unborn baby was kicking in my spouse's stomach :) I had tried to experience that already dozens of times before but without success.Below you see a photo from a lake nearby our house. The ice is melting and within few weeks there is nothing but water. We would like to have a house in a similar place as in the photo.
Oulu, Finland, Friday 14.04.2006, 20:27
It is time for the Easter vacation. We have spent it with domestic chores, reading and eating. Below you see a photo of our backyard after I removed all the snow on top of our terrace. Provided the weather is good, the terrace should be dry for eating outside in a week. Cannot wait to get the "summer" season started :)Today I was reading an article about global challenges written by one of the distinguished industrial leaders of Finland. Apparently some of the top challenges of the world in the forthcoming decades are how to produce cheap energy, how to guarantee clean water for everyone and how to keep the climate change under control. Cannot argue with the author, but one thing was bothering me; why the assumption that everything must increase or grow permanently? Instead of aiming to create cheap energy for everyone without limitations, why not put more effort on rational utilization of current energy resources? Why does energy have to be cheap anyway? If it is, people take it for granted and use it correspondingly or, in other words, irresponsibly. And once a human gets accustomed to live with a new bad habit, it will take generations at worst to get rid of it because common sense is often given only the backseat in situations like this. Take the past of the tobacco industry as an example.
Electricity consumption in Finland has apparently increased by 40 % since the year 1990 and I wonder if things like computer games with their modern energy devouring CPUs and such non-necessary activities have taken most of that. Non-necessary? Yes, until everyone has the privilege of enjoying the same standard of living as we have. Unfortunately we would need the natural resources of four of our planets in order to achieve that...
Oulu, Finland, Monday 10.04.2006, 17:47
I am definitely a Monday person. It is easy to wake up in the morning after a weekend, mind feels refreshed, some of the issues bothering you at work have often matured into solutions etc. Today was no exception, fortunately. Normal cycle keeps repeating. I am also glad there is more and more sunlight :)Pudasjärvi, Finland, Sunday 09.04.2006, 15:43
We're on our way to have some lunch after spending half a day downhill skiing at the Iso-Syöte ski centre. Me and my two childhood friends spent yesterday downhill skiing at the Ruka ski centre. The weather has been awesome, especially today. It's been around 15 years since the last time I was downhill skiing so one can imagine how my legs feel right now :) Have to be grateful to these friends of mine; although I live not that far away from the hills etc. I haven't visited any of them before. Besides, it was good to see the boys again. My spouse is in Stockholm, Sweden, with two friends of hers. Just like me and my buddies, they've also enjoyed their weekend. Below you'll see a photo of me and my friend at Iso-Syöte.
Oulu, Finland, Wednesday 05.04.2006, 21:55
Today was not the best of days. Slept poorly, was not as productive at work as I hoped to be, managed to lose some home page source code and cycling from work was more dangerous than enjoyable because of the slush on the roads. Well, small things anyway (as I write this, my lovely spouse is comforting me by stroking my hair - while she is brushing her teeth... :).Oulu, Finland, Sunday 02.04.2006, 22:08
Today me and my spouse spent few hours babysitting three young boys while the parents had a well-deserved break. On top of us, one of our friends came as well so all in all we were three adults for three boys. One of them was having a nap when we arrived. Once he woke up and noticed his parents were gone and he was left with us, he started crying. Just like the dad said, it lasted for few minutes and then he was OK again. We spent the hours by playing chess, hide-and-seek etc and by going out to play. Once one of the boys started feeling cold, we returned to home and had some dinner. Then the parents returned and we spent an hour together exchanging experiences. Boys behaved very well and all of us had an enjoyable afternoon. Below you see the youngest one working with his drumming technique.
Oulu, Finland, Saturday 01.04.2006, 20:15
Below you will see a photo with some dedicated handicraft. It is a carved hollow watermelon with a lid containing fruit "snacks". This was the central piece of culinary attention at the housewarming party me and my spouse attended today. It was made by one of the distinguished foreign entrepreneurs of Oulu. The party itself was excellent; a lot of good food and good company. Although it is one of the biggest towns (I do not dare to call it a city...) in Finland, Oulu is still fairly small, proven again by this party. A fair amount of the people attending were familiar to me for a reason or another. The international flavor of the gathering was a big plus :)
Oulu, Finland, Tuesday 28.03.2006, 09:53
Today morning was special for me. Me and my spouse went to an ultrasound check and I saw my first glimpse of our unborn child :) My spouse heard the heartbeat of the baby in the previous check, but I couldn't attend due to my absence. Nevertheless, it was interesting to notice how active the baby was and yet my spouse feels no movements. The doctor said that it could be a matter of days before she does :)
Oulu, Finland, Sunday 26.03.2006, 22:36
I got mail from KELA claiming that I have earned too much money the same year I graduated! As a consequence, they require me to return more than 500 euros! My jaw fell on the floor when I read the letter. Worst of all, now I have to prove my "innocence" in this matter, otherwise I have to pay. "Innocent till proven guilty" doesn't seem to be one of the mottos of KELA....Oulu, Finland, Sunday 26.03.2006, 20:02
Below you see a shirt that my spouse made for our unborn child. She bought a second-hand sewing machine and - being the crafty woman she is - this was the result. Provided she will continue with an even pace to make these clothes, we will have a collection to cover his/her needs until the age of 18 by the time of the birth...
It was a good weekend. Had some guests popping in for a cup of tea, went outside to enjoy the sun of the spring, took care of some socializing debts of old friends etc. There was also a reminder again of how small the world is; as I was working with a translation of a text, I noticed that the text was written by a person I had not met since comprehensive school. Quick search on the web gave me contact details with a photo on the spot. I sent her e-mail asking "is it you?".
Helsinki, Finland, Saturday 11.03.06, 19:05
I have
just boarded a train to
travel back to Oulu after two days in Helsinki. I attended a
two-day course called "Impowerished the unofficial majority
of
the world" (translated from Finnish, this might not be the official
translation) organized by Kepa,
an organization for advancing the issues of the developing countries in
Finland. I left the course with mixed feelings.
Even though
I got plenty of new information about the poverty issue in the world, I
still find myself wondering that was this - yet again - nothing more
than a naive discussion about issues that typically live only in the
words of the people, but not in their actions. These
discussions
have taken place a billion times, but how many times do they actually
lead into something concrete? I also have mixed feelings
about
trust. More than once was trust to other people raised as the
basis for actions against poverty. Trust between humans in
money
related issues? A beautiful thought, but rarely
reality.
Nevertheless, I am happy for the fact that I came across with people
who seem to care about things that the majority of those people you see
on the streets choose to ignore. Most touching moment was
when
the most experienced tutor of the course almost fell into tears while
sharing her personal experience on how the Western way of worshiping
money has replaced some of the fundamental values of the old
representatives of an old culture. One pertinent issue raised
at
the very beginning was left floating in the air eventually; given the
bad state of a number of ancient cultures and countries out there, how
to deal with the guilt of being a privileged Westerner?
On top of the
course, I also
had a chance to see my dad, stepmother and their charming German
shepherd :) I have to say I miss dogs.
Oulu, Finland, Wednesday 08.03.2006, 18:19
Einstein said once that "only two things are infinite; the universe and human's stupidity but I'm not sure about the universe". So true, proved again by the legislation issues of the European Union concerning the utilization of chemicals in consumer products. However unbelievable it might seem, it is apparently a fact that thousands of chemicals we use and have used on daily basis for years or even decades have never been properly tested. I could not believe this the first time I heard about it. Makes you wonder whether this has anything to do with some other headlines we have seen in the past (e.g. "Sperm count of western men steadily decreasing").It is the international Women's Day today. Although vast majority of the women living in this country are most likely happy and satisfied with their position as a citizen in this country, there are some who disagree as well. No excuse exists for the domestic violence taking place and it is also incomprehensible that a woman's Euro in Finland is persistently around 80 cents in the salary sector.
Oulu, Finland, Sunday 19.02.2006, 16:10
First week at work behind. Gotta say it was good to come back :)Today I read the latest Voima and a campaign against domestic violence organised by Amnesty International caught my attention. Apparently 90 000 women in Finland suffer from physical abuse every year out of which 20-30 die because of their injuries. Although our country is a beautiful place to live in so many ways, this is a big problem. It is also an age-old hearsay that Finland is one of the worst countries in Europe in terms of domestic violence. I have also attended a meeting recently where a distinguished member of our society declared that domestic violence is one of the most common issues he comes across with when talking about the daily problems of foreign women in Finland. Provided all the above is true one cannot but ask; what is wrong with a Finnish man?
Oulu, Finland, Tuesday 14.02.2006, 21:57
It's been two days since my return from India. Gotta say it was a good trip and a very privileged one. Couldn't imagine all of a sudden any other way how to experience something similar apart from this unique opportunity. Shame really that so few people know about the Rotary exchange, I'm sure there are a lot of talented people out there capable of contributing to schemes like this.Although the trip was great, it's good to be back as well. Contrary to expectations, it wasn't a problem at all to wake up in the morning after arrival, get dressed according to the winter conditions and cycle to work after a month in a tropical climate. I'm one of the fortunate (and rare?) ones to enjoy my "routine" life.
Getting sleepy, gonna hit the bed.
Oulu, Finland, Tuesday 10.01.2006, 22:35
Today I'll start the diary. Apart from one thing my day was normal; I disclosed some news to my colleagues at work that I haven't brought out in public yet (anyway, all the good things come to those who wait, right? :) and I received a warm wave of congratulations. Have to say it felt good.Some final preparation still for the India trip (see Rotary GSE 2006 for details), but mostly it's done already.